Philadelphia-based brokerage Janney Montgomery Scott has landed a longtime former Merrill Lynch adviser who managed $250 million in client assets at the firm, in a move that bolsters Janney’s presence in the region. Adviser Peter Sargent joined Janney last week in Yardley, Pennsylvania, becoming the biggest single adviser hire based on client assets to join the firm this year, Janney said on Friday. [Reuters]

Raymond James Financial Inc made its second round of big recruits from Merrill Lynch this year, adding three more advisers from the brokerage unit of Bank of America Corp who managed more than $140 million in client assets. Advisers Lee Vaughan, John Connelly and James Maddux joined Raymond James in a suburb of Nashville, Tennessee, from Merrill Lynch, where they worked for roughly a decade. The advisers together generated $860,000 in annual production last year. [Reuters]

The Bank for International Settlements, an intergovernmental organisation of central banks, has named Paul Tucker of the Bank of England as the new chairman of its influential payments committee. Mr Tucker, deputy governor for financial stability at the BoE, will serve as chairman of the Committee on Payment and Settlement Systems (CPSS). [Financial Times]

Portware, a US trading technology company, has poached Alfred Eskandar from Liquidnet as its new chief executive as part of a management restructuring. Mr Eskander will take the top role at the New York-based group while founders Ary Khatchikian and Eric Goldberg have become co-chairmen. Scott DePetris, the group’s chief operating officer, also becomes president. Mr Eskander was previously head of US equities at Liquidnet and held several other roles at the block trading firm, including president and chief executive of Miletus Trading when the quantitative broker-dealer was bought by Liquidnet. [Financial Times]

Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing confirmed on Friday that Joseph Meyer has resigned less than a year into his role as chief administrative officer (CAO) to pursue opportunities overseas. Mr Meyer, who had become the exchange’s first CAO in June, is due to leave in the first half of March. He has more than 30 years’ experience in the financial services industry and joined HKEx from Chi-X Japan, where he was responsible for the launch of the alternative trading platform. [Financial Times]